1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a golf tee and placement tool and, more specifically, to a golf tee including a pliant riser and rigid anchor bottom, and to a placement tool, including a coring mechanism, for placement of said golf tee.
2. Description of Prior Art
Heretofore most golf tee designs limited the golfer to one hit per placement of the golf tee. The golf tee must be reposited by the golfer before another golf ball can be teed up due to the displacement of the golf tee by the force of the striking golf club. Some patented golf tees attempt to overcome this problem but each of them has a number of other disadvantages. U.S. Pat. No. 1,623,782 issued to Dent, Mackenzie and White (1927) and U.S. Pat. No. 1,641,155 issued to Clausing (1927) are two patents that addressed this problem with a single rigid piece. These designs yielded tees that were easier to find because they stayed in the ground but they still required repositioning because the striking golf club would alter their vertical alignment. U.S. Pat. No. 1,679,579 issued to Lundy (1928) has a resilient rubber support mounted on a rigid pin that has an annular barb. This golf tee design makes it very difficult to place or remove the tee because there is no rigid handle-like surface or external means for golf tee manipulation. U.S. Pat. No. 2,470,817 issued to Hendricks (1949) utilizes interlocking parts to provide a rigid means for turf insertion and flexible means for maintaining tee alignment. However, the golf tee has a minimum of 6 parts rendering the product susceptible to failure and complex to manufacture. In addition, this golf tee will not always return to the desired alignment due to the mechanical nature of the connected pieces. U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,919 issued to Liccardello (1972) has external means for placement of the golf tee. However, the objective of the Liccardello tee was to create an unbreakable tee that would not cut down on golf driving yardage. As a result the golf tee must still be reposited between uses. All of these golf tees, and others like them, have one or more of the following drawbacks.
(a) They are difficult to place into firm ground.
(b) They are hard to consistently place at the same height.
(c) They cannot work in conjunction with external golf ball teeing devices because the ball supporting surface of the golf tee does not maintain the same height or alignment achieved by the original placement of the golf tee.
Other types of golf tee designs have an external structure, such as a mat with a hole in it, or other device to anchor the tee in place. Tees in this group are usually bulky in size and may be permanently placed in the ground. These tees, and others like them, have one or more of the following drawbacks.
(a) They change the natural setup and stance of the golfer.
(b) They use materials that can damage golf clubs.
(c) They are too big to be conveniently carried by golfers.
(d) They are much more expensive than tradition golf tees.
(e) They are maintained by the operators and are not always kept in proper working order. This would include the absence of tees or the absence of tees of the desired height.
(f) They may catch the golf shoe spikes of the golfer and result in an injury to the golfer.
In addition to the disadvantages discussed above, many golf tee designs are not consistent with most golfer's expectations of what a golf tee should look like or how it should operate. This factor alone has prevented many golf tees from gaining public acceptance and achieving commercial success.